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Recently Paul Pickett, Vice President of Franchise Development and Ellen Davis, Owner of the Franklin, MA store spoke with Marty McDermott, President of Franchise Interview on his radio show. Paul & Ellen explain that having a passion for the birds and nature is core to our business. Our Franchise Support Center can teach you the best practices for running a specialty retail store and will support you in your entrepreneurial efforts to own your own business. Want to own your own Wild Birds Unlimited store, click here.

Listen to the radio interview to understand what goes into running a Wild Birds Unlimited store and how we support our franchisees in our mission to bring people and nature together.

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The boxes are packed, our training center room is booked solid for rehearsals, the speakers are reserved and the entire Wild Birds Unlimited system is ready for our upcoming Wild Birds Unlimited Enterprise Leadership Conference that is being held next week in Savannah, Georgia! We hold this event each and every year and it is always a huge success.

The majority of our franchise store owners attend this conference to hear main stage presentations about the bird feeding industry, learn about new and better best practices designed to improve all of our individual businesses, spend time with old and new friends and colleagues, and attend our two day proprietary vendor mart. The vendor mart is a special Wild Birds Unlimited buying show with more than 125 vendors attending this year. They offer special discounts, additional buying programs and new products…just for Wild Birds Unlimited franchise store owners…but this is not the point of this blog (but I promise that I have one!).

As we do every year before heading out to the Enterprise Leadership Conference, we have an all-staff meeting to go over the agenda, discuss logistics, and cover any last minute details. This event is one of the most important times in our year as it is the only time that we all gather together to learn new ideas, share experiences, and, just as importantly, get to spend quality time together. We have Regional Meetings, market meetings, and phone conferences through the year…but this is different because it is the one time when we gather in critical mass and work together to learn and discuss new ways to deliver our message of “Bringing People and Nature Together”!

This year, our VP of Retail Sales, Pat Perkinson, who manages the whole Enterprise Leadership Conference, and who leads our staff meeting, ran the whole Franchise Support Center staff through a wonderful exercise. She asked us, as a group, to go through our whole customer experience training. Many years ago, Wild Birds Unlimited developed a branded, customer experience training program, entitled “The Wild Birds Unlimited Ten Touch Points”. This program was developed to provide a consistent, teachable training program so that each of our individual franchise store owners and their staff members would have an easy to learn, easy to remember and easy to implement customer experience training program and be able to deliver that exemplary customer experience to every one of their retail customers.

At our Enterprise Leadership Conference, the customers we will be focusing on will be there in person…our franchise store owners. And in the spirit of “Practicing what we Teach”, we all went over the Wild Birds Unlimited Ten Touch Points to ensure that our franchise store owners received the customer experience that we strive to give every day that they are members of the Wild Birds Unlimited Team.

One of the great things about Wild Birds Unlimited system (in my opinion) is that this type of activity, putting best practices in place for everyone, whether they are a franchise store owner, a store employee, a member of our staff here at the Wild Birds Unlimited Franchise Support Center and even our Founder/CEO/President, Jim Carpenter…we are all practicing what we teach and focusing on one of the most important elements of operating a business…providing a customer experience that is second to none!

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It was an odd request for a couple of reasons; first, my dad rarely scheduled a meeting with me or my siblings, if he had some thing to say, he just said it when the thought crossed his mind. Secondly, he was not one to offer unsolicited advice to me, or anyone else for that matter. So when my Dad told me that he wanted to sit down with me at a specific time to “talk about your education,” I was not sure what to expect.

What occurred was one of those few “life changing” events that occurs when you least expect it. My Dad sat me down to talk about my college major and the decisions that I would be making over the next few years. Since I was paying for my own education, my Dad told me that my choice of majors was mine to make…but he strongly suggested that I major in something that I love so that I would get good grades, which was the road to getting a good job. He went on to tell me that he made a terrible mistake in his own major, choosing one that would make it easy to get a job, but not one that he was passionate about. My dad never loved his job and his career was truly a “job” and everyday was a “day to go to work.”

I took my Dad’s advice and majored in Biology with an emphasis on my great love…BIRDS! I continued my education and got a Master’s Degree in Ornithology, not knowing how I would use it in my future career. Now, here I am, 23 years into my career at Wild Birds Unlimited. I don’t actually study birds anymore (at least not professionally), but I do get to talk about the hobby of bird feeding and help people turn their passion for the hobby into a business opportunity. I was lucky enough to turn my passion into my career.

So my point is that the best way to ensure that you never work a day in your life is to choose a franchise concept that appeals to your own personal passion. Entrepreneurship comes along with long hours and lots of hard effort, even when you join an established franchise system that has well documented and proven “Best Practices”. Working hard is only fun when you love what you do and are passionate about your concept.

That being said, passion comes in all shapes and sizes. You may decide that a fast food franchise is the right concept for you even if you aren’t a fan of the food. If you are passionate about operating a business, managing and developing a staff and having control over the way you spend your day, a fast food franchise might be perfect for you. Some franchisors don’t even want franchisees who want to work in their franchised stores. The hair cutting sector is well known for the fact that they often do not want stylists to be their franchisees. They are looking for franchisees who will manage the stylists and focus on the business operations- not the customer interactions. I have a friend who is an owner of a hair cutting franchisee. He is not passionate about hair (he doesn’t even have any), but he is passionate about the business operations- and that is why he loves owning his hair cutting franchises. He is also passionate about the hobby of bird feeding, which is why he loves owning his three Wild Birds Unlimited franchises too!

Here at Wild Birds Unlimited, we need franchisees who are passionate about both the hobby of backyard bird feeding and passionate about the behind the scenes business operations. We are an owner-operated system that needs franchise store owners who will connect with their customer base and enthusiastically promote the bird feeding hobby. Wild Birds Unlimited franchise store owners become their individual community’s hobby expert- and without passion, it is impossible to make that happen.

So, when considering which franchise concept to pursue, take a step back and make a list of your own personal and professional passions. Let that list help you make the best decision possible of possible franchise concepts so that you can turn your passion into your career. Never “work” a day in your life…just follow your passion!

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Paul Pickett, Wild Birds Unlimited vice president of Franchise Development, represented the nature specialty store last week at International Franchise Association (IFA) launch of Franchising Gives Back in Orlando, FL. Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc. also donated a bird feeding station from the local Winter Springs store to the project.

More than 100 franchisees and franchise executives spent several hours Friday, February 10th, volunteering at the Orlando Health and Rehabilitation Center. The project consisted of constructing an outdoor park which included laying mulch, planting shrubs, building benches and garden boxes. In addition, participants spread gravel and laid thousands of pounds of concrete to create a walking and wheelchair path.

“I couldn’t pass up this wonderful opportunity which will enable residents to get outside and connect with nature,” said Paul Pickett. “It is our mission to bring people and nature together, and this was a great way to do just that”, Pickett added.

The IFA is the oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. The IFA’s mission is to protect, enhance and promote franchising through government relations, public relations and educational programs.

Orlando Health and Rehabilitation Center Orlando Health & Rehabilitation Center has been serving the greater Orlando area for over 48 years.

Wild Birds Unlimited is the original and largest franchise system of backyard bird feeding and nature specialty stores with more than 275 locations throughout the United States and Canada. Wild Birds Unlimited specializes in bringing people and nature together with bird feeding and nature products, expert advice and educational events. Visit our Web site and shop online at www.wbu.com. To learn how you can open your own Wild Birds Unlimited, visit www.wbufranchise.com.